The Victoria-area municipality of Colwood, B.C. is taking government-funded healthcare to another level by hiring family doctors directly as city employees.
Mayor Doug Kobayashi said his municipality is pioneering a new approach to addressing its family doctor shortage by hiring physicians.
The model hopes to offer doctors a comprehensive benefits package including full medical coverage, paid vacation time, and a pension plan without the added strain of requiring them to manage a doctor’s office.
Kobayashi claims the effort has garnered significant interest from other municipalities across Canada, which are also hoping to attract and retain more physicians.
“I can tell you right now, the phone, texts, emails, it’s just going off like crazy from all the other municipalities,” Kobayashi told the Canadian Press.
The city aims to reduce the administrative burden associated with private practice by directly employing doctors, allowing physicians to focus primarily on patient care.
The B.C. government has fully supported the project since Colwood first piloted the idea in 2023.
Kobayashi explained that 10,000 people in Colwood — nearly half of its 20,000 residents — will be connected to a municipal clinic under the program.
British Columbia has become a staging ground for experimental ways to address the healthcare crisis.
Last year, the provincial government green-lit a program that would see British Columbians receive cancer treatment in Bellingham, Wash. at a private healthcare clinic and have the costs paid for by taxpayers.
The move was implemented to address excessive wait times for prostate and breast cancer screening and treatment.
